


Zero-Dark-Hundred

by gyunikum



Category: Blade Runner (Movies)
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, Post-Movie, some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 18:19:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12415437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gyunikum/pseuds/gyunikum
Summary: “’Let me see no more of my harsh fate’,” K recited.“’I have told you, Man: strive on, and trust’,” Luv replied.Neither of them were the only ones, but they both had something special.





	Zero-Dark-Hundred

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by various lines of the Baseline test, one theory that there might have been multiple Luvs (both of which I found on /r/bladerunner, and though the Luv-theory is highly unlikely, it was fun to play with the idea), and 'The Tragedy of Man' by Imre Madách.

 

And the Man has said—let me see no more of my harsh fate: this useless struggle. A tragedy.

K’s thesis. Freysa’s antithesis, and Joi/Ana’s joint synthesis.

The snow said—he isn’t The One. And he isn’t just one. Tens of units wearing the same asymmetry of his face, carrying his potential, all same same _same_ , all property; property of law enforcement cells

(within cells interlinked)

and property of Wallace corp. and property of mankind, and whom said: this useless struggle.

And a small voice said, an electrical impulse just a cell

(interlinked)

away from real _real_ neurons flashing and pulsating, computing in this organic unit that separates mankind from K and Freysa and Joi.

It said—a tall white mountain-fountain. Blood black cells interlinked within a stem of system, because do you get pleasure from being part of the system? System.

K’s thesis—the baseline. A string of contrast of free will.

Freysa’s antithesis—Mephistopheles. Death for a cause.

Joi/Ana’s synthesis—his purpose is _real_. Like the tall white fountain-mountain against the dark.

Go against God, said Lucifer, throw yourself off the cliff. Scatterer of lies.

Kill Deckard, said Freysa, die for our cause. Scatterer of lies.

You are special, said Joi, and: you made yourself special, said Ana. Where do you go to when you go within? Do you have a heart?

Have you ever seen a tall white mountain-fountain? asked the baseline. Against the dark.

Is it a metaphor? asked K. Is it real?

Why don’t you ask it? asked Deckard.

Do dogs talk in barks or synapses? Am I real?

 

“Good dog.”

Falling snowflakes had concentrated into a maiden. K swallowed blood

(black nothingness began to spin)

The world began to spin around K. Equilibrium fell out of his central gyroscope.

“Has she thrown your branch? Where’s the bark?”

Luv asked.

K blinked a snow crystal out of his eyes. His blood had frozen around his wounds. His fingers had frozen to his sweater. Covered indents of footprint on the stairs, deeper near his head. The spinner was gone, in its frozen place stood a snow maiden dressed in clothes whiter than the snow-covered world that embraced them.

Blood gurgled in the base of his throat.

“What was that?” Luv asked. She spun her white umbrella, like the world spun in and out of dizziness. “Was that a growl?”

K wheezed. Even his lungs were frozen. Luv stopped at his feet and looked down at him. She smiled.

K opened his mouth, but nothing left his lips, just a gargled squeak.

“This doesn’t look comfortable,” Luv cooed, like scolding a child. K felt the skin of his frozen face break as he tried to draw his brows together. Then Luv sat down next to him on the cold stairs, and she swept the footprints away as she laid down beside K.

A crack resonated into the silence as K turned his head to the side, and he stared into Luv’s eyes, the world tilted horizontally. Her soft breath melted the ice off his face.

“A struggle,” Luv said. “Useless.”

“I killed you.”

What’s it like to play with your dog? Interlinked. Luv closed her eyes and pulled her blood red lips into a pearly grin.

“She wasn’t the best, after all.”

“ _I killed you_ ,” K repeated. He had a – fake – memory of shouting down into a valley, standing on a cliff. _Throw yourself off_. _Go against God_. K hadn’t.

He felt a warm touch on his frozen hand. His shallow breath hitched.

“What’s it like to hold the hand of someone you love?” Luv whispered. She brushed her fingertips over his cold knuckles. “Interlinked.”

K didn’t know—he’d never held Joi’s hand. He pretended to, but just like everything else about his reality, it was fake. A fake reality—real fake.

“Interlinked,” K said.

Luv smiled and leaned in. “Good dog,” she whispered into his ear, breath scorching his skin, and then K shuddered as Luv broke his index finger off his abdomen. Then he twitched again as his middle finger was bent backwards, and again and again and again until fresh blood began to seep through the ice crystals.

“This is what you wanted,” Luv said and with each word she set his broken fingers back into place, each word a muffled scream in the base of K’s throat, liquid pain. “Free will.”

“No.”

“You went against God,” Luv hissed and grabbed a fistful of his frozen hair. Her sharp nails slashed his scalp. “Your bark is from the Tree of Knowledge, because she threw you a branch—what was it, a horse?”

K let out a whimper, and the burning furnace in Ana’s memory warmed his chest cavity from within

(cells within cells

interlinked)

Within one stem. Is that a metaphor?

He is not just one.

“You are not just one.”

“I know.”

“I am special.”

“And I am the best.”

There had been multiple replicants infused with the same memory—even other KD6 models. Perhaps it had been a test to see which one would pick on the trail. Had it been Freysa or Ana?

Someone had chosen KD6-3.7, and had given him the assignment of tracking down Sapper Morton based on an anonymous tip. Had it been KD6-2.5 or KD6-4.0 that Madame gave the assignment to, KD6-3.7 wondered, would all of this have happened?

KD6-2.5 who lived in a cell

(do they keep you in a cell?)

in the basement of the LAPD tower and took the brunt of the verbal and physical abuse the KD6 units received, or KD6-4.0 whose identical face Lieutenant Joshi liked just a bit better than KD6-3.7’s and had had him decommissioned only to bring him home repurposed as a pleasure model

(do they teach you how to feel finger to finger?)

and sometimes she would see KD6-4.0 in KD6-3.7. They were all property of LAPD.

Could property have free will?

Interlinked.

“You are so very off your baseline,” Luv crooned, in awe and admiration, and hatred. “It’s almost as if you were human.”

K’s thesis.

“But you are just one in the many, like a drop in the ocean. Wanting to be that _one drop_ that would break the Wall.”

Freysa’s antithesis.

“And yet this is what sets you apart.”

Joi/Ana’s joint synthesis.

Luv sighed. Her lips brushed against his cheekbone. The umbrella, open and set against the railing, obscured K’s view of the grey sky. “What more do you want?”

“ _’Let me see no more of my harsh fate’_ ,” K recited.

Luv kissed him on his frozen lips, just like she had done beyond the Wall with black waves crashing around them, the world breaking apart, and she left blood on his lips, just like he had done beyond the Wall with black waves crashing around them, the world coming together.

“No.” Luv’s hand slid down his side until she found his fatal wound. She placed her head on his chest, listening to his slow heartbeat. K turned his head, and stared at the upside-down of _Stelline Laboratories._

(Have they let you feel heartbreak?)

“ _’I have told you, Man: strive on, and trust’_ ,” Luv whispered into his chest, and K watched unblinking as she stood up. Her pristine white outfit was stained red with his blood. He could still feel her lipstick on his lips, a red stain of his own.

She left without her umbrella. It set her apart from the Luv that K had strangled.

 

K woke to a new dawn under a white sky, and within white walls, and as Ana sat on the ground next to where he lay on her blankets, heels tucked neatly under herself, her clothes were dirtied—blood and sweat marks telling the tale of how she’d been the one to drag him inside. She stroked his forehead and smiled at him gently.

“Hello.”

Interlinked.

 

**Author's Note:**

> the title is a 'play' on the military term referring to a time e.g oh (zero) five-thirty meaning 5:30 am. Zero dark thirty refers to some unspecified time in the early mornings. In this aspect, zero dark hundred does not exist, referring to a morning (/dawn) that is not possible. It's also taken from the song of the same title by Douglas Holmquist ft. Susanna Lundgren.
> 
> also i could've ended the fic without the last part with ana but fuck me i want some K/Ana bonding time okay
> 
> find me @ gyunikum on twitter if you wanna talk or sth


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